Japanese Socialist Party Sends North Korea A Protest Letter Over Abductions

In an apparent move to denounce the abductions of Japanese by North Korean agents, the Social Democratic Party on Thursday sent a letter of protest to North Korea's Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), which the SDP claims has long been an ally, SDP sources said.

On Friday, the SDP called a meeting of its ad hoc committee on issues concerning the Korean Peninsula for the first time in about 1! years, aiming to redefine its relationship with North Korea's ruling party, the sources said.

The SDP mailed the letter of protest directly to its North Korean ally, the sources said.

In the letter, the SDP demanded the WPK reveal the entire truth about the abductions of Japanese, the sources said.

"We have been shocked and, at the same time, enraged (to learn Pyongyang committed such acts)," the letter read. "(We find) it totally unbelievable and (have decided) it is an unconscionable criminal act, so we hereby would like to sternly protest (to the WPK)."

SDP Secretary General Mizuho Fukushima touched on this recent shift in the party's stance at a press conference Friday.

However, she stopped short of announcing any plan to review the SDP's ties with the WPK, saying, "We'll discuss (the issue) later."

Former House of Councillors member Hideo Den, who said he has visited North Korea about 10 times, spoke at the Friday committee meeting, which Fukushima chaired.

At the beginning of his lecture, the veteran SDP member denounced the abductions, the sources said. "I just don't understand why (North Korea) has done such a foolish thing," Den was quoted as saying.

However, he reportedly said nothing further about the abductions. He spent the remainder of his lecture, which stretched over two hours and 20 minutes, commenting on and narrating the history of Japan's relations with the Korean Peninsula from the times of Japan's colonial rule to the present.

After the lecture, Den defended himself for never raising the issue of the abductions during his visits to Pyongyang, which had yet to admit to them at the time.

"I didn't believe the allegations that (North Korea) had abducted Japanese," he told reporters. "I've been deceived."

The members of the SDP committee apparently lack enthusiasm and commitment as only eight of the party's 24 Diet members, all of whom are regular committee members, participated in the Friday meeting. Among the eight were SDP leader Takako Doi and Fukushima.

In addition, none of the meeting participants proposed discussing the abduction issue and no future meetings were scheduled, the sources said.

While the main objective of the committee is to examine the past relationship between the SDP and the WPK and to map out future exchanges, observers said the Friday meeting gave the impression the participants had failed to act on this objective.

One of the participants reportedly pointed out the committee's limitations in terms of foreign affairs.

"There'd be no way we could make an issue out of the abductions if (the North Koreans) claimed no abductions were committed," Yasumasa Shigeno, a House of Representatives member, was quoted as saying.

A senior party member apparently was irritated by public criticism of the SDP's failure to contest Pyongyang's claim it had not abducted any Japanese.

"It was the Liberal Democratic Party--rather than the Japan Socialist Party (the SDP's forerunner) or the SDP--that defined legislators' North Korean diplomatic policy in the 1990s," the member said.

However, a suprapartisan group of Diet members dedicated to resolving the abduction issue criticized this argument as an attempt by the SDP to deflect accusations.

"The SDP should admit it readily became a puppet of North Korea, while it recently started making the excuse it was deceived (by the North Koreans)," a legislators group member said.

The public also has not relaxed its criticism of the SDP. SDP headquarters and regional chapters recently have been flooded with phone calls and mail protesting the party's lukewarm stance against North Korea.

Such public criticism is unlikely to stop unless the SDP reviews its relations with the WPK and redefines its past North Korean policy, observers said.

Last Monday, Yoko Tajima, an upper house SDP member, handed in her resignation to the party leadership, criticizing the party's handling of the abduction issue and its stance toward North Korea.

Tajima, a feminist scholar and popular television personality, said she would become an independent legislator.

I've been deceived.

Holy smoke, the feces has sure hit the old impellor blade. Wonder what he's going to say in response to THIS?

Social Democrats tend to support Communism because they think "revolution" will bring about "progressive" change, but when they start seeing firing squads, death camps and the other hallmarks of Communist dictatorship, some(not most) will say "Hey wait a minute, this isn't what we marched for."

And you can get it by the voters as long as it's in some isolated la-la land. But when the la-la-landers start kidnapping voters, they don't like that. Worse, as shown here, the utter disrespect the leaders show for their people is exposed.

What this story doesn't really stress is that the Socialist Party in Japan and the North Koreans have been joined at the hip for many many years and that the Socialists have, at every opportunity, denounced anything related to the abductions as pro-U.S. propaganda.

You better believe they are pissed. But they are not pissed that North Korea kidnapped those people. They are pissed that the North Koreans ADMITTED IT.

I am sure they would be much happier if the commies had shot them all and buried the bodies deep in the mountains.

Because of this, the Socialists are looking at complete melt down in the polls.

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